Copper Usage in Dental Alloys

With its rich yellow color, copper has been used in crown and bridge alloys primarily for its color enhancing properties. As the price of gold increased, alternative alloys were utilized to maintain the golden color and copper was a good substitute. Other advantages to this alloy are its strength and its ability to increase thermal expansion when alloyed with palladium based alloys.

The major disadvantage to using copper is similar to the disadvantage of silver - it can tarnish and can cause discoloration to porcelain. This is rare if the alloy is predominantly palladium.

Today, many full cast alloys contain limited amounts of copper for both its color and strength. But most PFM alloys are copper free.